Page 26 - Studio International - October1973
P. 26

EL LISSITZKY AND THE


        JEWISH TRADITION



        Alan C. Birnholz
        `Those who really did most for the spiritual   recently, true individuality and creativity. For
        dignity of their people, who were great enough   all his excellent Jewish work, Lissitzky
        to transcend the bounds of nationality and to   participated only in the first two periods; his
        weave the strands of their Jewish genius into the   mature 'individuality' surfaced only after he
        general texture of European life, have been   turned away from Jewish art.
        given short shrift and perfunctory recognition.' 1    I believe that this interpretation of Lissitzky's
                                                  art is shortsighted. As I have briefly noted
        Were he alive today, El Lissitzky (1890-1941)   elsewhere, there can be no doubt that in style,
        would disagree most vehemently with the   the Jewish works shared much with the Proun
        contentions of this article. As creator of the 'new   compositions,8   and in meaning, certain Jewish
        art' he called Proun, Lissitzky considered   themes were favoured because they expressed
        himself a modern, revolutionary, avant-garde   so well his confident faith in the Revolution
        artist who had successfully and completely   which stood at the foundation of Proun.9  But   Design of a lion in miniscule letters, German
        broken with the past. He acknowledged working   the impact of the Jewish tradition extends much   manuscript of the thirteenth century. National
                                                                                            Library, Vienna
        on Jewish themes only from 1917 to 1920, and   deeper than I formerly recognized. That is, if
        by the early twenties, he believed, his Jewish   earlier I could analyze Lissitzky's career in   Jews, and campaigned vigorously for the cause
        past had yielded to an art relevant to all people   terms of his allegiance to the twin masters of the   of Jewish workers. There was similar progress
        as they moved inexorably toward the fulfilment   avant-garde movement and the Bolshevik   in Jewish literature and in the Jewish theatre.
        of world revolution and the communist utopia?   Revolution,10  I must now add the third member   Particularly important for Lissitzky, Jews now
        Lissitzky argued this interpretation of his work   to the Trinity he tried so hard to satisfy : the   became deeply interested in their folk arts. The
        so often throughout his life that it has been   Jewish tradition.                   Jewish Ethnographic Society, established
        unquestioningly accepted by art historians. Yet                                     specifically to pursue this interest, encouraged
        the frequency and intensity of these denials of   I                                 the collection of Jewish art objects, set up a
        his past, as well as the nature of the works   Throughout the formative years of his life   museum of Jewish art in St Petersburg, and
        themselves once we look at them closely, suggest   Lissitzky was enveloped by Jewish culture and   provided moral and financial support for young
        that the Jewish tradition was a much more   by the constant awareness of his Jewish origins.   artists like Chagall and Lissitzky. 14
        important factor in Lissitzky's career than he   He was born in the Pale of Settlement in 1890,   This activity 'testified to the great internal
        cared to admit.                           the first-born son of a particularly devout   diversity, as well as virility and creative vigour,
          The commonly held interpretation of     mother who compelled her husband to give up   of the Russian [Jewish] community at the turn
        Lissitzky is that although he was a major figure   ideas of emigrating to America because the rabbi   of the century.'15  This vitality grew with the
        in the rebirth of Russian-Jewish art in the late   disapproved." The threat and reality of   rising tide of persecution the Jews faced at the
        teens, the impact of modernism, and of    pogroms intensified the youth's knowledge that   same time. Virulent anti-Semitism ironically
        Suprematism in particular, 'alienated' him away   he was Jewish. Rejected by the Petersburg   stimulated and encouraged the Jewish
        from Jewish subjects and moved him toward the   Academy in part for his inability to draw in the   Renaissance. 'Paradoxical as it may seem, it was
        Gegenstandslosigkeit, or 'non-objectivity', of   required classicist style, in part for the   precisely at this period — when the Jews were
        Proun.3   Chimen Abramsky, for example, wrote   limitations against the number of Jewish   made to feel most sharply and insistently that
        that the years devoted to Jewish themes, from   students, Lissitzky decided to do what so many   they were nothing but a pliant and helpless
        1917 to 1922 (not 192o, as Lissitzky recalled),   other young Russian Jews did in the early years   object in the hands of history, that they could
        `to an extent . . . are isolated from the rest of his   of the century: he went to Germany.12  At the   be dealt with arbitrarily, without respect and
        artistic achievement' which was non-Jewish, if   Darmstadt Technische Hochschule from 1910   consideration — that Russian Jewry, perhaps for
        not anti-Jewish, in character. Never a devout   to 1914 he came into contact not only with   the first time in its long years of suffering, came
        Jew, Lissitzky became 'restless', Abramsky   advanced trends in art and architecture, but   to conceive of itself as a subject rather than
        goes on, with the limitations of the Jewish   also with a thriving Jewish community and with   object, as the shaper of its own destiny and its
        tradition as he progressed toward a truly   Jewish art.13                           own future.'16  The Jews' nationalist ambitions
        avant-garde art.4   Others have stressed the   Thus wherever Lissitzky turned during these   formed but one part of a growing nationalist
        psychological trauma Lissitzky experienced in   years he was reminded of his Jewish background.   feeling that swept over many minority groups
        rejecting his Jewish background.5   Such views   This awareness was heightened by a rising   in the Russian empire at the beginning of the
        are not new. Writing in the Jewish cultural   concern among Jews with their cultural heritage.   1900s.
        journal Milgroim in 1923, Lissitzky's friend   Known as the Jewish Renaissance, this   After 1917 Lissitzky worked hard for the
        Henryk Berlewi included him in a survey of   movement began in the 187os and 188os as a   cause of Jewish art. Like most Jews he welcomed
        Jewish artists in contemporary Russian art, only   result of the reforms of Alexander II.   the overthrow of the Tsar as the end of the
        to mention that Lissitzky had discarded the   Succeeding decades witnessed the development   torment of the pogroms. As Solzhenitsyn wrote
        sentimentality of `Chagallism' in favour of the   of specifically Jewish organizations in many   in 'The First Circle', 'to a man, the Jews were in
        `pure constructions' of Proun.6  In the   fields. In labour, for example, the Society of   favour of the Revolution that had rid them of
        following year Boris Aronson came to a similar   Social Democratic Jewish Workers in Russia,   pogroms, of settlement restrictions.'17  'It is
        conclusion.7  Modern Jewish artists in Russia,   known as the Bund, was founded in 1897. This   impossible,' one Jew stated at this time, 'to
        Aronson declared, had gone through three main   body, highly active before the Revolution,   describe the exhilaration and the holiday
        periods : mere copying of traditional objects,   developed a Yiddish-language press, called for   atmosphere in the Jewish world immediately
        stylization and modernization, and, most    cultural and national autonomy for Russian   after the fall of Tsarism.'18  The Provisional

        130
   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31